We Can't Be as Bad as All That

Maury Yeston, the composer and lyricist best-known for Nine and Titanic, visited the West End a few months before the West End opening of his new musical, Death Takes a Holiday. Based on a film (which was based on a play) this story tells of how Death changed his perspective. He used to not quite understand why everyone he came to collect was quite so aggrieved to die, until he met a particular woman who allowed him to realise quite what makes life worth clinging to. The side effect of Death's occupation being, though, that he can't collect anyone else while he's so distracted - Death the person and death the concept take a break!  Maury was kind enough to discuss his musical background, some of his better-known works and his latest venture for the stage.

Donmar Warehouse Announces the 2016 Spring Season!

MACK AND MABEL is a love story between a director who can't be anything but what he is and an actress who can't figure out who she is. More deeply, it is a story about the turbulent relationship between Hollywood and cinema. And like Normand, it's smart and funny too.

The 2015/16 Season at Syracuse Stage is bookended with comedies. Opening the season in October is Steve Martin's farcical romp The Underpants. The season will close in May 2016 with a brand new madcap comedy spoof of Sherlock Holmes' most famous case in Ken Ludwig's Baskerville: a Sherlock Holmes Mystery.

I recently attended a performance of La Bayadere. The dancing was excellent, but the music by Ludwig Minkus was excruciating. I realize that it has a jump, a bounce, danceable adagio notes, but after three hours of listening to it my head was spinning. I went home intending to wash Minkus out of both my hair and brain by listening to every note that Shostakovich and Prokofiev ever wrote. If I want to hear music, let's not settle for anything less than best and, many times, the brilliant.

The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) has named a quartet of iconic Japanese filmmakers - Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima, and Hideo Oguni - as honorees of its 2013 Jean Renoir Award for Screenwriting Achievement, given to an international writer(s) who has advanced the literature of motion pictures and made outstanding contributions to the profession of screenwriter.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), now in its fourth year, is a three-week event in NYC that has premiered over 90 musicals in its first three years, becoming the largest musical theatre event in America. Tickets for NYMF productions are available at www.nymf.org or by calling 212-352-3101. This year's Festival will run from September 17 through October 7 with the following schedule of events...